Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Grotesque Masquerade

"Iran's
current rulers will use your presence to further their own, hateful
purposes. Such a visit would only serve to legitimize and condone the
record of this regime, which Canada views as the single most significant
risk to global peace and security today.

"Iran's
egregious human-rights record denies large segments of the Iranian
population even the most basic of rights, while threatening the very
existence of one of its neighbours.

"For
example, on August 2, 2012, President [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad said that,
'anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation
of the Zionist regime in order to pave the way for world justice and
freedom'." John Baird, Minister of Foreign Affairs

This
is part of a letter sent by Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs to the
attention of Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations. It was sent to the
Secretary-General a day after the announcement that he meant to accept
the invitation to attend the Tehran conference of the Non-Aligned
Nations. Mr. Ban evidently considers the summit as a forum giving him
the opportunity to advance "towards solutions on issues that are central
to the global agenda".

And those issues would of
course, include disarmament and conflict prevention. Since the very
critical issues of disarmament and conflict prevention are those which
have seized the attention of the international community relating to the
Islamic Republic of Iran's stated and firm intention of achieving
nuclear status, with the unstated and covert additional intention of
manufacturing fissile nuclear material for the formation of arms, this
represents a fairly grotesque interpretation.

Iran
presents itself as a country given to peace and harmony, one that is
critically misunderstood and unfairly blamed and held to a standard that
does not respect its sovereignty. It consistently refuses inspection
entry to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors while
denying it has anything to hide. The existence of its illicit Fordow
nuclear facility was kept secret until it could no longer deny its
presence. Its Parchin military installation where it has tested
explosive devices has been placed off limit to IAEA inspectors who
believe nuclear tests have taken place there.

Its
atrocious record on instigating terror groups to do its proxy bidding,
its encouragement of hostilities toward those with whom it disagrees
politically, its harassment and abuse of those who defy it, and its
constant threats on the international stage against the existence of the
State of Israel, where it feels entitled to claim it will wipe the
world clear of the presence of Jews in an echo of the Holocaust which it
denies ever having taken place, is a testament to its malign presence
on the world stage.

Because of its oil wealth and the
countries with emerging economies' reliance on Iran's energy, it has
influence it would otherwise not have with socially and politically
backward countries of the world, many of which are themselves verbally
belligerent to the advanced economies of the world, and specially the
United States and Israel. That, under these circumstances, Ban Ki-moon
sees his way clear to appear at the Non-Aligned summit is appalling.

He
is offering the imprimatur of the United Nations to give credence to
the outrageous and false allegations issued by Iran, presenting itself
as an innocent, as a force for good in the world, as committed to peace
and to disarmament, when nothing could be further from the truth. He
is, by his planned presence, doing honour to evil intentions, even at a
time when he is aware that Iran's influence and involvement in the civil
war raging in Syria is serving to support that dystopian, vicious
regime.

"We
fundamentally believe that a visit by the Secretary-General to Iran
will only serve to further legitimize the reckless actions of this
regime," further emphasized Rick Roth, Mr. Baird's press
secretary. Mr. Baird's formal declaration of support for refusing the
request to attend the summit represents Canada's position on the issue.
One that is shared by a number of governments and human-rights bodies.

Iran
is under strict economic sanctions from Western nations as a result of
its illegal nuclear program. Its position at this summit where it holds
the three-year chairmanship of the movement, is an added effort to
manipulate opinion to its side. These are countries, attending the
summit, with membership in the United Nations. Many would not be
sending senior representatives or appearing at all, were it not for the
fact that it appears the United Nations, in the person of Ban Ki-moon
has approved the event.

The United Nations has also
seen fit to continue to include the Islamic Republic of Iran's current
regime in diplomatic arenas. This is not the first time that Foreign
Affairs Minister Baird has upbraided the UN for its support of Iran.
Disappointment was expressed by Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs
at Iran's appointment as a vice-president to the recent UN Arms Trade
Treaty conference. Could anything possibly be more logically perverse?

"[Mr.
Baird] is entirely right - it is absolutely outrageous that Ban Ki-moon
attend this summit. If a country like Canada doesn't express its
viewpoint on this, then he [Mr. Ban] can say, 'Nobody told me there was a
problem with it'. I think it should be made very clear to him that
this is a mistake on his part."Clifford May, president, Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies

This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.